Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  12/27/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I live alone and my water bill usually stays between 25-40$ a month. I have been noticing every couple of months my bill will be either doubled or 3 times that amount. I thought taking the issue to the company would help resolve it. I took their advice and did as they suggested. I put a cut off value directly on the line entering the house. I also bought a extra water meter and attached it as well. This month when I got my bill it was 3 times as much usage than usual. So I check the meter I placed on the line, and it did not match the number they charged me for. I would not have done this but this company has hoodwinked me before when I paid extra on a bill and they did not apply it to the next bill . I do believe this company is cheating their customers any way that they can. I would go to another however this is the only provider. I would like to see someone look into this for if they are doing this to every or every other costumer than either a company employee is pocketing a bunch of hard working peoples money that they pay for water which people in this area have no other provider

  Business response

  12/27/2024

  After review of the account at **** ***** ****, I can find no irregularities with the account. The meter was read each month and the customer was billed for the correct amount. I have issued a work order to collect daily usage data from the customer's meter for the last 30 to 60 days, whichever can be transmitted, and will review the data and post an update when it is received. We will be able to see how much water went through the meter each day, as well as hourly for specific days. This account is not flagged as having a leak, but that does not preclude a leaky toilet flapper or other issue on the customer's side during the period of the last bill. This meter was only installed in August of 2023 so it is a fairly new meter and not likely to be malfunctioning. As far as any "hoodwinking going on", review of the charges and payments shows a balance of $27.66 on July 18, 2024. A payment of $50.00 was made on July 29, 2024, leaving a credit on the account of $22.34. The following billed amount was $45.74 and the $22.34 credit was subtracted from the amount due, leaving a balance of $23.40. the customer paid $25.00 on August 28, 2024, which left a credit on the account of $1.60, which was subsequently deducted from the following month's billing of $39.83, leaving a balance of $38.23, which customer paid to a zero balance on October 3, 2024. The District has a billing system and sophisticated meter reading system in place that bills over 17,000 accounts per month with the same procedures and processes over 10 different cycles. There are checks and balances done each billing cycle and payments received and posted are checked by multiple employees and managers daily. There is no "hoodwinking" happening here. If the customer would like to come into the office, I will sit down with him and explain his account summary and evidence of each transaction from the beginning of his account.

• Initial Complaint

  08/29/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  The mountain water district is responsible for processing our monthly payments for water/sewer usage and keeping correct record of said monthly payments for the dental office of ******* **** ****** **** Since June, we have had phone calls to our office that tell us we are going to be shut off due to non-payment. We make timely payment, often times having an overpayment reflected on the account when we call to inquire. We are told that this is an error on the part of the Mountain Water District and to ignore the calls when we get them. This month, our water was shut off due to the same billing system error. When speaking with a representative, they apologized and let us know there were unsure when someone would be dispatched to turn our water back on at the office location. Due to having no notice, our office scheduled as we would any other day. At approximately 10:00am, we noticed the water was no longer coming out of the faucet. It is unclear when the technician was dispatched to our location, we only know they came before 10:00am. Our equipment to run instruments and sanitation require water. The negligence and use of poor judgement with their "billing system" has caused a technician to be dispatched to cut our water off and DID. Since we did not know, our equipment continued to run and we will possibly have to replace several components of equipment within our office.

  Business response

  08/29/2024

  In response to *** ******* ******** complaint with the District's billing department. The District had to transition to a new billing software company at the end of January 2024. There have many things that has needed corrected since the transition, including how customers payments are being applied to their accounts. According to the software company, ******** once an adjustment is made on an account, the billing clerk needs to choose rather to apply adjustment to water or sewer. Once the adjustment is applied as water, then all future payments would be applied to that service at first then remainder of payment as tax and surcharge. In *** ******** situation it was an adjustment applied to sewer, then each monthly payment she has made since then has applied her payment to sewer shoeing the water service as past due. When the disconnect list is generated, the billing department will go through the list to verify payment, and this was an oversight on our behalf. Her services were reconnected at no charge once we were made aware of the situation. Phone calls are made as a curtsey to customers to remind them to pay their past due or if they have, then they need to contact our office. Our software company, ******** is aware of the issue and they are in the process of trying to resolve the issue. This has been discussed with the billing department and explained to them that they need to be more cautious before issuing disconnects, we do have three clerks that are still in their early phase of training, and this will be monitored more in the future. If there are any more questions, please contact me. 

• Initial Complaint

  08/06/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  A local water district is running a scam on people in our area. I would never resort to filing a complaint like this, if i didnt know 3 other “honest, hard-working people,” had the SAME thing done to them as well. Mountain water district has had a faulty website for over 6 months. You can not sign into your account AT ALL and view your usage and bill breakdown! This is the way i have paid ON TIME for many(prob 18) of the 41 YEARS I HAVE had service with them. Never once have i been late on bills of any kind, much less my utilities. Since u cant sign into your account, i have to remember to make a trip to pay for my 56$ bill on the way to town, which is RIDICULOUS! Anyway, three homes have had this issue of BEING CUTOFF, then instead of then making the local customers( that have always PAID THEIR bills on time) pay a reconnect fee and disconnect fee of 15$ each, they are asking for a 75$ deposit on a 41yr old account that has been late one other time in that 41yrs(due to illness) How can u ask for a deposit on an account that has been open for 41yrs???? Why havent they fixed their website? This is infuriating and highly suspect! Selena, aka the “supervisor”, spoke to me like i was a child and then demanded the 75$ deposit! Is she doing this and pocketing the 75$ deposit? Who knows but it all seems very odd! I deal with alot of utility companies and never has something this weird and absurd taken place. There was no working with me, so on a bill that was 56$ i paid 162$ to get my water back on!!! I make money and can afford it, wven though IT ISNT RIGHT, alot of the people in my area are under the poverty level! This seems very unfair at best and crooked! Please look into this matter!!!! Thank you

  Business response

  08/29/2024

  This complaint was forwarded to the Compliance Manager on 8/6/24 but went to junk mail. I could not find an email on 8/16/24. I did receive this complaint on 8/26/24 but was out of town at a conference. The District's response is that we appreciate all of our customers and do our best to provide various options to pay their bill, either on line, in person or over the phone. We have gone through a rather large transition this year with our billing system to a completely new vendor and it changed the online site. We have posted in the newspaper, on the bill, and in the lobby what is necessary to create a new account. This customer apparently has not seen these notices and has not created a new account to access her information. We are happy to aid her in this process if she will call ************ and ask for ***** ***** He will walk her through the set up for the online account. As for the fees assessed for disconnection, all fees are listed in the District's tariff on our website at ******************************

   

   

• Initial Complaint

  01/10/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Mountain water district damaged my property and claim all they can do is put down hay and grass seed. They damaged the property by taking dirt from the front yard to fill in a hole they dug to fix the water line. The workers were told by me to use dirt that I had piled across the road and they took it from the yard anyway. This poses a risk of injury when mowing the yard as it now has a big divot that is uneven and could cause damaged to equipment or self. All I ask is for them to come fix it and they say there is nothing they can do when I know they can. I have talked to customer service 4 times and a supervisor they transferred me to and only gave me the run around and did nothing to fix the issue.

  Business response

  01/10/2024

  After speaking with the Customer Service/Billing Manager, she called the area Supervisor who said he would be bringing top soil and additional seed and straw to the property to level it out in the next couple of business days. I did not speak to *** **** personally, but did not get the impression that anyone was opposed to the idea of going out and reworking the property repairs. I will call him myself and let him know the plan going forward to repair his property. 

  Customer response

  01/11/2024

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***** ****

  2 workers came and threw out 10 bags of top soil which wasn't enough to cover the damage MWD had done on the prior work on the main water line. They need to bring over some equipment and do it correctly. They left the main part of it with a wide dip and also did not fill in and compact all the area damaged. This is ridiculous that you can't fix back what you messed up. I guess in todays world sloppy work half done is the best you can get.  

  Business response

  02/06/2024

  District staff went again to the location on February 2, 2024 and tried to make contact with someone at the residence. Someone was there but would not come to the door. Staff put down additional top soil and straw in the affected area for the second time, as well as an area that we did not work on but vehicles had run over and rutted out along the road. This is the second repair at the location and the District considers this matter closed.

  Customer response

  02/06/2024

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***** ****

  If no one came to the door it was because nobody was home. Yes the damaged asked of you to fix was your mini excavator that rutted it out. Your workers left a 5 or so foot section untouched which make no sense because you managed to fix both ends but not the middle. I no longer expect you all to fix it because clearly doing part of a job is what tax payer money and outrageous customer cost is all about.

• Initial Complaint

  06/01/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  Mountain water district Ky shut off the business sewer & water , while the bill was late , its was paid on 6/1/2022 & the bill was not actually due to be paid In full until 6/11/22 I showed the bill to the employee & the receipt In which he did not want to look at , he called the company & they still said to shut it off, which imposes health issue to customers by not having water & sewer. This is outrageous considering that small businesses like mine are still struggle to rebuild after being forced to shut down after Covid I proceeded to call Mountain water district Ky on all numbers provided in which we got a disconnect number. Now I will have to pay an additional reconnect fee, even after showing my paid receipt & my bill which was not a disconnect.

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